15 Answers

Do you mean computer games?

I think Mastermind is an excellent brain game. I know of it only in actual material form, but I suppose it could exist in an electronic version, in which case you wouldn’t need a human opponent to score your moves.

I think it really depends on what you want your brain to do. I mean, there are the traditional “brain games” that are basically Mensa tests. I suppose that sort of thing is good if you ant to practice for college entrance exams, but I never found them good for much more than that.

Personally, I find that if you really want to challenge your brain, some of your old-school tabletop strategy games (or their digital equivalents) are far better, especially those that allow custom unit design. They involve creativity, language skills (to understand numerous, complex rules), math skills, and basically involve all areas of your brain… and for people like me, that includes the pleasure centers as well.

So, what part of your brain are you trying to exercise/build? Rote memory? Spatial relations? Pattern recognition? Computation?

I play sudoku to keep my brain active. I also like an app that I have on my iphone, you have to connect digits that add up to 7, 11 or 21 and the numbers keep moving up and you lose if you let them touch the top before you can connect them. Scrabble is good for vocabulary. I have these all on my phone and play them whenever I have a quiet moment or some time to kill.

@johnpowell: After having spent four days on the introduction, I am on chapter one of the elementary physics text I used years ago. I am relearning the difference between force, pressure, mass and weight of fluids…it is very soothing.